Day
6
(10/11/2011) Jordan: Petra

Before

This day is entirely dedicated to visiting Petra. We will
drive until Petra visitor’s center and, after getting the tickets,
walking through the Siq until the Treasury. Once there we would decide
if doing the way up to Monastery by donkey or by feet. What seems clear
is we’re going to lunch in restaurant sited when this way starts.

Spots in map are:

3- The Siq
4- The Treasury
22- First stairs to Monastery and restaurant
24- The Monastery

The expected expenses for this day are:

Petra entrance: 50 JOD
Buffet restaurant lunch: 25 JOD.

After

Once again, we don’t manage to be as early as we
wanted: while waking up, get breakfast and exchanging money on a bank
nearby we get into the car at 9:15. Somehow, my idea about Petra being
some kilometers out of Wadi Musa is wrong and we’re parking at
Visitor’s Center in two minutes. Tickets are 50 dinares per person.

Now is time to walk: from entrance to the Siq is
around one kilometer and inside the Siq there is an even longer
distance to save. For the first part we’re offered riding a horse. Eva
accepts when the horseman remembers us this is included in our ticket
and we just should tip.

When arrived to the Siq, we do some pictures with
the horse and the kind Bedouin who we tip with 2 dinars. The Siq is a
narrow pass between tall and beautiful walls of rose-colured rock. The
only way of avoiding to walk here is a two-seater carriage by 20 dinars
one way. We prefer to walk enjoying every corner and taking over the
tours stopped around their guide.

And then, sooner than I expected, the Treasury
appears in front of us through the tight opening at the end of the Siq
and a spectacular bright coming from morning sun. The facade is
impressive and people crowd in front of it engrossed by its view.

A child is already starting to offer donkeys to us
for going up to the Monastery. Eva bargains until 7 dinar each, but as
my mother is panicked about these animals, we decide I’ll do the path
by walking together with my parents. I envy my wife and her donkey.

When we leave the Treasury behind we go between
rock walls full of ancient tombs until reaching the ruins of the Roman
city. We’re not stopping so much on these places as we’re going to come
back by this same path and we’ve decided to climb to the Monastery now,
when we still are quite full of forces. Another kilometer, which Eva
has already saved riding her donkey, takes us to the start of the
around 800 steps stair and we’re going to face the moment I’ve feared
most in this whole travel.

We take more than one hour to do this path, stopping
periodically to rest. Almost all the people we meet I their way down
are Spanish and we’re always asking them about how much long is the way
to end. When Eva greets us from the top seems unbelievable we got it.
The reward is watching this impressive fašade gotten out from the rock
and the bar which offers shadow, drinks and rest. We take some lemon
with mint glasses by 3 dinars each.

The way down in not comparable with the climbing
and we do it in a lot less time. “Downstairs”, an empty restaurant with
its buffet is waiting for us. We pay 17 dinars per person, excluding
drinks.

We start our way back stopping more often for
visiting the Roman ruins and my feet are hurting. Sandals are not the
right footwear for visiting Petra, the fine sand set between latchet
and skin rubbing a lot.

We’re continuously offered by camel or donkey rides, just as
when coming, but we walk all the way. When we arrive to the Treasury
again, it is showing its afternoon look, very different than the one in
the morning, with no bright and alone, but equally beautiful in another
way. We sit and rest in front of the quiet beauty of this fašade.
Watching more into the details: the pink color tones or the holes in
the rock at both sides making a sort of stairs. The journey is getting
over, it’s only the one last part to our car: the Siq. From the
Treasury we can see this narrow passage end, or start, as the picture
at right below, made this morning. It is not more than a crack in the
rock. It reminds me a butt, but maybe it’s just me.

We arrive to the car exhausted and it is getting
dark, so we are in our hotel in no time.

I and my wife are going to a cybercafe just across hotel Street and,
while I’m checking my email, Eva starts talking to the IT guy first,
and the place owner later. This last one shows us pictures of Spanish
celebrities and start to joking. Another young Bedouin appears talking
a very good Spanish, it’s a funny guy and we all sit around a table
making fun of everything, drinking Apple juice and smoking from shisha.
We’re enjoying a lot this time and make some comparisons between our
cultures.

The one with the good Spanish shows us a TV
documentary from Spanish tv in his cell phone, and he is playing a role
on it as Bedouin! All of them have smart phones and the less famous
celebrity they’ve got a picture with is Bill Clinton. At 1 AM, when
they come back at home with their wives we’re going to bed too knowing
tomorrow we must leave early for a day which will end in Egypt.